January: White As Snow

INTRODUCTION 

Ah, a fresh book to write in.  Not just a fresh page or fresh chapter, but a fresh book.  New white pages.  No red stains from the past.  A new start.  Nothing but blank pages just waiting to be filled.  My husband and I have been through the fire and back over the past 14 months.  The day before Thanksgiving in November of 2011 he made a mistake at work and effectively lost his job as a PE and Health teacher along with his teaching license and future career.  He was arrested and spent 6 days in jail, only to be released on bail to wait for 51 weeks to be sentenced and most recently serve his final 60 days in jail.  In one day we lost his job and income and career, our home, thousands of dollars, our reputation, the foundation of trust in our marriage, our hopes of teaching in the same school and having blissful summers together, our plans to start a family, and so many dreams and visions of what we had hoped our life could be like.  Needless to say this mistake threw us into a fire-y furnace.  But God.  

When my husband recently got home from jail, I surprised him with a night at our honeymoon destination, which is a romantically private spot in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the beauty of the wilderness.  There were many reasons why this spot was appropriate for such a celebration of his homecoming, but the one that seemed to rise above the rest was the peaceful, quiet WHITE snow covered grounds.  I am the epitome of someone who, for half the year, wonders why I live here in the Midwest.  I don’t love snow, but for some reason the vision of being surrounded by white on every side was so attractive to me because of the biblical parallels and promises that our gracious Father extends to us.  Isaiah 1:18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."  I have always said from the beginning of this painful road we have now been traveling for 14 months that while my husband’s sin was publicly exposed, the most painful part of the last year for me was dealing with myself.  Dealing with the red stains of my own sin.  The pressure of so much change and loss exposed so many of my selfish tendencies, my fleshly desires, my weaknesses, my capacity to be jealous and immature and sinful.  And so when I speak of a new fresh white beginning, I need this whiteness and purifying just as much as my husband.  We have both been rescued and redeemed from our sinfulness.  

If there was one truth that rises above the rest that has changed everything about our lives, it is the reality and truth of the gospel.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "Jesus Christ, who knew NO SIN came to be sin for us that we might be called the righteousness of God."  Who are we to be called righteous?  We have learned that our righteousness has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Him.  God can take our red stained hearts and wash us, cleansing us from our sins and making us white as snow again.  God is a God is second chances.  He is a merciful God.  He has the power to clear our record and wipe the slate clean.  And what is so amazing about the last year is that we have learned about these incredible promises in His Word and we have been able to ACTIVATE them.  This freedom from sin and guilt and shame is available to everyone, but until such blatant sins are committed with so many consequences is there a need for activation.  And we have had this painful privilege.  And it has been the most miraculous supernatural experience of our lives.  To see His mercy manifest itself in our lives.  To see the second chances of a new job and career, a new home, new support and friendships, new hope, new dreams, total forgiveness and healing.  To see the complete and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  We have been able to activate the gospel.

I recently learned that when Christ said, “It is finished” on the cross, that statement carried cultural significance because at that time when prisoners were released they would literally wear a sign around the community saying, “It is finished."  This served as a reminder and symbol that this individual had paid their debt to society and the past was now behind them. No one could use their mistakes against them anymore.  We believe this to be true for my husband as well.  He paid the price, he did everything he was asked to do, and he humbled himself under God’s mighty hand, that God could lift Him up in due time.  (1 Peter 5:6)  With the power of our words and perspective, we declared that the MOMENT my husband walked out of that jail door, the moment his cell was unlocked, that this was finished.  That the blood of Jesus Christ was enough to cover and cleanse his mistakes.  That God is true to His word and therefore really can move our sins and mistakes as far as the east is from the west.  (Psalm 103:12)  If God said it, it must be true and we chose to activate it.  It required much intention, but through the process of studying God’s word, praying God’s word, and believing God’s word, we have seen this incredible gospel manifest in our very own lives.  

Our deepest prayer is that we would live our lives worthy of this gospel, so that God could point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)  Revelation 12:11 declares that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.  We are hopeful that our testimony, the story of what God has done in our lives, can benefit the lives of others.  We find value in recounting God's deeds, sharing what He has done, and declaring His greatness through His mighty works.  The intention of this blog is to document the miraculous testimony of life after death.  We will never stop sharing the miracles, signs, and wonders of our great God. 

I remember a specific prayer our dear friends prayed over us just weeks before my husband was sentenced: “I pray that when they walk out of this fire, that they would not even smell like smoke.”  And we can testify that this is truly the case.  This new book represents a new hopeful and bright future which has appeared in many ways. I am excited to dive into the details of our new story and start filling the blank pages with the signs and wonders we have seen since my husband’s release and share the miracle of a new life that has been so graciously given to us.  We look down at our garments only to see that they truly are as white and pure as this January snow.  

In light of this new fresh and white beginning and the hope of a new year, we are excited to create new habits as a family in 2013.  Our goal is to create a new habit each month of this year, with the hope that a year from now we will be practicing 12 new habits!  Starting this blog is the first habit I plan to maintain, as documentation of this process and the miracles God will do, as well as to hold us accountable to our intention to grow and change as a family.  

As an addition to this year of intention and new habits, we found it appropriate to lay out the rules in our family that we can hang in our home as a reminder of what we value and how we intend to interact.  After so much change and as we transition into a new life together, we believe starting with a new set of "rules" will bring us clarity and freedom as we move forward into the incredible future that lies ahead.   

Habit #1: Document